These Ad Banners Are AI-Generated, but the Clicks Are Real

The demand for ad creatives has never been higher, and neither has the pressure to produce them faster. Whether running 5 campaigns or 50 at your company, you’re probably asking a similar question to everyone else right now: 

How are we going to complete all these visuals on time?

Creative production has traditionally been a bottleneck (especially with Black Friday or any sales season approaching), requiring styled photoshoots, stock image hunting, endless design rounds, and so on. With generative AI, there’s now a better way to approach this.

At scandiweb, we’ve trained and tested various AI tools to create high-performing visuals for ads. In fact, we produced over 100 high-performing ad creatives for different clients in just two weeks. Let’s explore how to use AI to your advantage – we’ll showcase real examples, share performance insights, and give you a blueprint to speed up creative production.

Sneak peek:)

Key takeaways

• AI ad creatives can match and often outperform traditional production, without the need for photoshoots, product shoots, stock images, or lengthy design timelines.
• What separates effective AI ads from the noise is clarity of intent.
• AI ads benefit from rapid testing and iteration.
• In real campaigns, AI creatives delivered high CTRs and low CPCs, proving their value across industries and formats.

The problem: always waiting on visuals

As digital ad platforms change and competition intensifies, brands are expected to appear everywhere, all the time. Traditional creative production can’t keep up. Producing a single set of high-quality visuals typically involves:

• Product photography or styled shoots
• Creative briefings and revisions
• Copy and design iterations
• Format adjustments for multiple channels.

Multiply that by every target audience, product line, message variant, and platform format, and suddenly your one campaign needs dozens of ad assets just to launch. That can result in:

❌ Delays in launching campaigns because assets aren’t ready
❌ Missed testing opportunities, limiting performance insights
❌ Creative fatigue, with reused or generic visuals
❌ Lower ROAS, simply due to visual underperformance.

Your media spend is only as strong as the creatives behind it. Luckily, there’s now a faster, smarter way to deliver them.

The solution: AI-generated ad creatives

Integrating AI into the ad production workflow allows for keeping up with any campaign schedules. Using tools like MidJourney, Runway, Veo3, ChatGPT, and Flora, our Paid Media team has built entire campaign asset libraries from scratch. No product photos and styled shoots needed for any of our clients.

Lifestyle banners, background visuals for motion ads, demos, side-by-side comparisons, or new assets to test messaging variations – with the right approach, you can have full control over the output.

When to use AI for ad creatives

Use AI-generated ad creatives when:

• You need to launch quickly without waiting on styled shoots or internal design resources
• You want to test multiple messaging angles (value-based, product-first, social proof, etc.)
• You’re running seasonal or short-term campaigns
• You want creative diversity
• You’re scaling to various platforms and audiences.

AI is ideal for creating all kinds of ads, including lifestyle visuals that place the product in a real-life context, demo-style images and UI overlays, social proof formats (reviews, ratings, testimonials), background visuals and motion graphics, and conceptual or metaphorical visuals that draw attention.

That said, AI isn’t a fit for every use case. Highly regulated industries or products that require precise accuracy might still need human-led design. But for the majority of brands, proper use of AI offers an advantage that’s hard to ignore.

AI in your campaign workflow

Here’s how a modern, AI-powered creative workflow might look:

• Define the campaign goal – are you building awareness or converting repeat customers? This determines the creative type.
• Generate visual concepts with AI tools – use text-to-image prompts, product references, or overlays to create a variety of visuals. 
• Test multiple variants – launch with 2–3 creative directions across platforms. Focus on A/B testing hooks, imagery, and formats.
• Refine based on data – double down on what’s working, then re-generate and adjust.
• Once you find a winning format, replicate it.

The faster you create, the more you can refine and witness performance start to build. This process would otherwise take weeks, but it’s significantly faster when assisted by AI. It’s particularly powerful when paired with high-volume campaign calendars, such as Black Friday, back-to-school sales, spring launches, or other seasonal sales campaigns.

Take a look at some of the stand-outs from our AI Creative Library!

How to make AI creatives that work

You have to remember users are currently hit with AI-generated content from every direction. Ads that work won’t be flashy but thoughtful. Realism plus subtle creative flair will build trust where gimmicks won’t. Think cool transitions and unexpected metaphors to catch attention. 

AI can generate anything. That’s the problem and the opportunity. Before you start prompting, ask “what’s the ad supposed to do?” Build trust? Educate, inspire action, show the product in real life? Reassure a skeptical buyer? The goal dictates the style and format of the creative.

Here’s how to make sure your AI-powered ads actually convert. 

Focus on user-led storytelling

One of the most effective creative angles right now? Show, don’t tell.

• Use AI to simulate UGC-style visuals, product-in-use scenarios, or day-in-the-life settings
• Emphasize the real-world benefit, not just the product
• Add elements like quotes, testimonials, or messaging overlays that anchor the creative in relatability
• Even if the visuals are not real, they should feel grounded in everyday life.

Add a visual twist

AI excels at creating subtle surrealism, but use that power strategically to catch attention without confusing the viewer:

• A background that moves while the product remains still
• A visual metaphor that conveys a product benefit
• A juxtaposition of two ideas (e.g., natural ingredients + clinical effectiveness).

If something looks too fake or too AI, it won’t convert. Shoppers are savvy, so you should still prioritize realistic lighting and proportions, avoid overly stylized or uncanny imagery, use reference images for consistency and brand alignment, and blend AI visuals with human-written copy and proven ad formats.

A/B test fast and often

Because AI allows you to generate multiple versions in hours, not days, you can quickly test different product angles, color tones, background context, emotional vs. rational creative tone, etc. Use performance data to refine your prompts. 

AI can create high-quality, on-brand visuals tailored to the campaign goal super fast. What’s more, our testing proves they work. Let us show you!

Case studies: AI ad creatives in action

Trust-building creatives for pet products

AI model: ChatGPT image generation with product reference

Goal: Build trust and conversions through social proof, tailored for pet owners

• Impressions: 15,312
• Click-through rate: 0.63%
• Return on ad spend: 10.55

Why it worked: realistic, relatable imagery paired with a genuine-sounding customer review hits home with pet owners, especially those dealing with sensitive digestion issues.

AI model: Runway

Goal: Educate and convert by visualizing high-quality ingredients

• Impressions: 39,686
• CTR: 0.50%
• ROAS: 9.50

Why it worked: ingredient awareness is a key driver for health-conscious shoppers; the visuals convey freshness and quality without needing photography.

Credibility in ads for a wellness brand

AI model: Flora GPT, Sora, Midjourney

Goal: Encourage action by showcasing consultation with Swiss doctors

• Reach: 160,158
• CPC: 3.14 CHF
• CPM: 1.61 CHF

Why it worked: emphasizing credibility helps move users from awareness to action, while visual realism plus healthcare-centric messaging builds trust.

AI model: Flora GPT, Midjourney, Runway

Goal: Inspire confidence and conversions for MS symptom management services

• Reach: 202,395
• CPC: 3.20 CHF
• CPM: 1.67 CHF

Why it worked: a blend of hopeful messaging and empowering visuals, conveying discretion, ease-of-use, and professionalism.

Video content enriched with AI

Goal: Drive efficient clicks and form submissions at low cost

• CTR: 3.65%
• Link Clicks: 235
• Reach: 4,860

Why it worked: combining real footage with AI-enhanced visual storytelling created credibility while catching attention. 

Goal: Capture attention and drive contact signups through a storytelling-led format

• CTR: 3.45%
• Link Clicks: 207
• Reach: 4,786

Why it worked: the animated format created an emotional hook while staying brand-appropriate. It delivered a relatable, human feel, resulting in the highest contact volume of the test group.

So, it’s official, AI has entered the paid media toolkit as a high-performance solution. If properly trained, AI-generated visuals can be on-brand, performance-driven, and scalable across platforms, converting effectively.

We’ve seen firsthand how AI-generated ad creatives:

• Help teams produce campaign assets faster and at higher volume
• Deliver visuals that align with brand and messaging goals, without needing custom photos or stock images
• Enable faster testing cycles, improving creative insights and campaign outcomes
• Perform across different formats – motion graphics, lifestyle ads, review-based visuals, and so much more.

Ready to launch your best-performing ads with ease? Our AI and Paid Media teams have already created hundreds of high-performing creatives for clients across industries, and we’re just getting started. Book a free consultation, and let’s figure out how AI can improve your ads and your broader marketing operations!

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